Galactica Discovers Earth, Part II

"Galactica Discovers Earth, Part II" An episode of the Galactica 1980 series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 2
Writer(s)	Glen A. Larson
Story by
Director	Sidney Hayers
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)	Herbert Jefferson Jr as Boomer
Production No.	85510
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	1980-02-03
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	survivors
Additional Info	Script available for download (incomplete) Information Novelization
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I	Galactica Discovers Earth, Part II	Galactica Discovers Earth, Part III
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Listing of props for this episode
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As Colonial Warriors attempt to contact Earth scientists to aid in improving their technology, Earth authorities complicate Troy and Dillon's mission, while Doctor Zee discovers that a rogue Council member is attempting to change Earth history.

Summary

• The young boy Willy Griffin arrives home to tell his dad he's found two spaceships. His dad is skeptical but eventually decides to take a look.

• When Griffin's father sees the Vipers, he calls the police.

• Meanwhile, Jamie Hamilton has reached the UBC television studios, where her interview is not going well. During the interview, she is interrupted to take a phone call from Dillon. Hamilton refuses to talk and hangs up.

• Dr. Mortinson calls Hamilton, having determined she was somehow connected with Troy and Dillon.

• Overhearing part of this conversation, Mr. Brooks, the UBC station manager, offers Hamilton a reporting job if she can manage to get an interview with Mortinson. Hamilton agrees to the offer.

• Followed by a UBC camera crew in a van, Hamilton goes to meet Mortinson as planned, and Troy and Dillon catch up to her on the way.

• When Mortinson arrives, he is pleased to meet the Colonials, but realizes Hamilton is trying to get him on film.

TV Guide Ad for Galactica Discovers Earth.

• Troy suggests they leave, and the four get into the doctor's car.

• As the UBC van sets off after them, Dillon grabs the wheel and a car chase ensues.

• Dillon plows the car into the front of a store, but the four are without injury and manage to escape by use of the invisibility screen.

• Leaving Mortinson behind, Troy, Dillon, and Jamie return to Galactica.

• The Vipers cross the night sky and are witnessed by Willy Griffin, his dad and the police - but the police discount them as shooting stars.

• Arriving at Galactica, an amazed Hamilton accompanies Troy and Dillon to the briefing with Adama.

• While the two were away on Earth, Xaviar has been arguing with Adama over the merits of introducing technological advancements to Earth in 1980, and has taken matters into his own hands.

• Xaviar steals Doctor Zee's time machine to travel to the past and make changes to history to speed up the technological development of Earth.

• Doctor Zee determines that Xaviar has gone back to Nazi Germany during World War II.

• Troy, Dillon, and Hamilton launch for Earth and, using Doctor Zee's space warp, travel backwards in time. The process alters the molecules in their clothes, leaving their uniforms and equipment white in color.

• Arriving in the skies over Germany of 4 June 1944, they are detected by the Germans. The Nazi Commander initially believes they are the 423rd Spitfire Squadron, but he is informed that there are only two. Believing that the craft are American reconnaissance bomber planes, he orders the Luftwaffe to intercept. However, the Colonials avoid the pursuing Luftwaffe after the Luftwaffe's commander notices that the Vipers lack American or Allied markings. The Luftwaffe commander sternly orders his wingmen not to mention anything about the incident, believing the Vipers to be the Germans' own experimental aircraft and Troy and Dillon land the Vipers in a field, or they would personally answer to him.

• Suddenly, the trio sees a B-17 sail into view, under heavy fire. The plane is downed, but a lone parachutist makes it down.

• The parachutist is Major Stockwell, who is in Germany to try and sabotage the new V-2 rocket which is being tested nearby.

• On their way to the rocket base, Troy, Dillon, Stockwell, and Hamilton observe a transport of Jews about to be shipped to Auschwitz.

• They manage to free a single young girl, and take her with them as they head to a bookstore owned by one of Stockwell's contacts.

• Suddenly, the SS arrives to raid the bookstore. The team uses the invisibility cloak to avoid capture.

• Promising to help those who were taken by the SS later, Troy determines that they need first to find Xaviar.

• Xaviar is indeed at the rocket base, posing as a British rocket scientist with Nazi sympathies. He is overseeing the testing of an augmented V-2 - equipped with a jet using Colonial technology.

• Dressed as German soldiers, the Warriors, Hamilton and Stockwell sneak into the base just in time to see the V-2 sitting on the pad, awaiting the test that could give the Nazis the upper hand in the war, altering Earth's history.

From Script to Screen

In the December 13, 1979 revision of the script for this episode, there are a few noted differences:

• The lines that are spoken by Boomer were assigned to a Colonel Benz.
• The name of the Nazi officer overseeing the V-2 program is called Werner, which is also echoed in the novelization for this episode.
• The name of the German resistance leader is Smite.
• The sub-plot regarding Willie Griffin finding the Vipers is not present here.

Notes

• Segments of the episode were filmed at the Golden Oak Ranch. The Nazi rocket base was filmed in part on the Universal Studios backlot.
• The "white uniforms" are reuses from the episodes "War of the Gods, Part II" and "Experiment in Terra". In "War of the Gods," the uniforms are seen on Apollo, Starbuck and Sheba when they are aboard the Ship of Lights. Later, Starbuck and Apollo have these uniforms when given an aura that permits them to see John, a Being of Light, during their assignment on Terra.
• The only new Viper-based special effects created for this episode involves the time warp effect as Troy and Dillon pursue Xaviar back to 1944.
• Dillon uses the vulgar word felgercarb in this episode, which is the first occurrence of a vulgarism in this series. It is also interesting, given the restrictions the FCC placed on programming that occupied 1980's timeslot.
• In reality, the first V-2 test launches took place in 1942. By 1944, the rocket was already massproduced by slave labor in underground factories. Due to Allied bombings a large part of the research staff was also moved away from Peenemünde. Although tests to refine the technology took place there until shortly before the war's end, the rocket wasn't still undergoing basic development as implied by the episode.

Analysis

• Doctor Zee has earned the respect of the Council of Twelve and Commander Adama due to his accuracy and his feats that have saved them. The Council has never rebuked or challenged Zee, unlike Adama, who has fought the council on nearly every issue in the Original Series.

• The Colonials do not know the science of time travel. Xavier points out that it is something that the Colonials have tried to achieve, but failed in their past.

Questions

• Instead of going back to develop Earth's technology, why not go thirty years and attempt to change the Battle of Cimtar? Or even further, given how far back Xaviar is capable of going (i.e. roughly 1700 A.D)?
• Xaviar is clearly a Colonial Warrior, and is given the rank of commander, but what is his role outside of the Quorum of Twelve?

Noteworthy Dialogue

• Xaviar attempts to convince Adama to back his time travel escapades:

Xaviar: Adama, your grandson was to have reported in long ago. We've heard from all the others.

Adama: Xaviar, please be patient.

Xaviar: (interrupting) The folly of the whole plan is so desperately dangerous, I cannot agree.

Adama: Not exposing this planet Earth to our enemies is in the best interests of our Earth brothers and ourselves.

Xaviar: That I agree with! But we have other means. A tool we have sought for generations and possess, thanks to our young genius.

Adama: Well, if you are referring to the time warp synthesizer, I cannot agree. The whole concept of time travel is extremely dangerous. Forcing a whole civilization forward beyond the speed of light, pushing it back into the past. It's never even been tried.

Xaviar: Adama, what could be more vital to the speeding up of Earth's civilization and by going back into her past and introducing scientific tools hundreds of Earth years earlier?

Adama: We know nothing of the consequences of changing that which has already been.

Xaviar: Then we'll find out. I could lead an expedition into Earth's past. We could introduce electronics, flight, atomic energy. Let me at least present it to the council for a vote.

Adama: The council has never overruled Dr. Zee. He's never been wrong.

Xaviar: It has never been this critical. Side with me. I am a great leader. I could deliver us a planet capable of saving us now.

• Jamie Hamilton stops Troy from driving the stolen cop car in reverse:

Jamie Hamilton: What are you guys? Martians?!

Dillon: (after consulting the wrist computron) Close.

• Stockwell gets bemused over Hamilton's use of the term Galactican:

Stockwell: Look, lady, you're making me very nervous with all this strange terminology.

Troy: What, you think you got a problem with terminology?

• Stockwell and grammatical tense issues:

Hamilton: (after Stockwell brings up the V-2 rocket) Of course, the V-2. It almost changed the course of the war.

Stockwell: Almost changed? Why are you always talking in the past tense?

Troy: This is no time to be correcting grammar. Now, let's do whatever it is we're going to do.

Guest Stars

• Richard Lynch as Xaviar
• Robbie Rist as Doctor Zee
• Robert Reed as Donald Mortinson
• Christopher Stone as Major Stockwell
• Albert Paulsen as General Yodel
• Louis Turenne as Colonel Werner (credited as "German Officer")
• Michael Strong as Smite (credited as "Resistance Leader/The Old Man")
• Fred Holliday as Mr. Brooks
• Ted Gehring as Sheriff
• Curt Lowens as German Commander
• James R. Parkes as Walt Griffin
• Bruce Wright as Aide
• Adam Star as Willie Griffin
• Missy Francis as Little Girl
• Todd Martin as 3rd German
• John Zenda as 3rd Cop
• Erik Holland as 2nd German Officer
• Erik Forst as 1st German Officer
• Nancy Priddy as Mrs. Griffin (uncredited)
• Hal Frederick as Al (uncredited)
• Unknown as Dave
• Unknown as Willie Griffin's sister
• Unknown as Luftwaffe leader

External Links

• Galactica Discovers Earth Part 2 Full Episode on YouTube